Roast Chicken with Apricot Glaze

Easiest way to dress up roast chicken? Glaze with apricot preserves!

You know the easiest way to make a simple roast chicken something worthy of fancy dinner party?

Glaze it in the last few minutes of roasting with a little melted apricot preserves. It will make you look like a master chef!

It’s an old trick, but a good one.

In this recipe we’re taking it even further with a Middle-Eastern inspired cumin cinnamon rub. We love these flavors in our Slow Cooker Chicken Rice Casserole recipe, and they work beautifully with the apricot glaze.

If you want to take full advantage of the flavor that the cumin cinnamon rub can provide, as soon as you get home from the market with your chicken, take it out of its wrapping and coat it all over with the rub. Then return it to your fridge until an hour or two before you are ready to cook it.

Roast Chicken with Apricot Glaze Recipe

Prep time:10 minutes

Cook time:1 hour

Marinate in Rub time:1 hour

Yield:Serves 4

We are using a whole chicken for this recipe. You can use parts if you want, bone-in skin on. Follow the instructions for our basic baked chicken for the roasting part, glazing with apricot preserves the last 5 to 10 minutes of cooking.

When cooking a whole chicken, remember to remove to giblets (liver, gizzards, neck) first. They're often in a bag in the cavity. I fry up the liver in butter for a little snack and save the neck and gizzards for making stock.

Ingredients

Rub:

2 teaspoons ground cumin

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

Chicken:

1 4-pound (1.8 kg) whole chicken

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

Apricot glaze:

1/3 cup (80 ml) apricot preserves

Method

1 Rub chicken with spices and let sit: Whisk together the cumin, cinnamon, and salt in a small bowl. Rub the spices all over the chicken. Loosely cover and let sit at least one hour, or preferably refrigerate overnight. In either case allow chicken to sit at room temperature for at least one hour (preferably two) before cooking.

2 Rub chicken with olive oil and roast in oven: Preheat oven to 375°F. Place the chicken in a roasting pan, breast-side up. Rub olive oil all over the chicken. Place in the middle rack of the oven and cook for 50 minutes at 375°F or until the internal temperature of the chicken thighs reaches 165°F.

3 Heat apricot preserves: While the chicken is roasting, heat the apricot preserves in a small saucepan or in the microwave until warm and runny.

4 Baste chicken with apricot preserves: Remove chicken from oven, and baste the exposed surfaces of the chicken all over with the apricot preserves, using a basting brush.

5 Increase oven temp and return chicken to oven: Increase the oven temperature to 400°F. Return the chicken to the oven and bake for an additional 8 to 10 minutes, basting the chicken again with the glaze halfway through, until the glaze is bubbly and beginning to brown.

Elise Bauer is the founder of Simply Recipes. Elise launched Simply Recipes in 2003 as a way to keep track of her family's recipes, and along the way grew it into one of the most popular cooking websites in the world. Elise is dedicated to helping home cooks be successful in the kitchen. Elise is a graduate of Stanford University, and lives in Sacramento, California.

I didn’t have time to let it sit very long with the spices on, but I made this last night, and it was delicious! It’s quite different from anything I’ve made before, and I will definitely make it again.

Hi Betsy, I’m so glad you liked it! And thank you for mentioning that you used the carcass to make a quick chicken stock. Homemade chicken stock is so easy to make, and practically free if you are using bones from a roasted chicken. I always save the bones from a roasted chicken to make stock with. If not right away, then I freeze them for later. Hope you like the soup too!

Three things I have to question about this recipe. I have always heard not to leave raw chicken at room temperature for more than 20 minutes and this recipe says 1 to 2 hours. Also 1 hour baking time doesn’t seem long enough for a 4 pound chicken. Isn’t it supposed to be 20 minutes per pound? One more thing, chicken should be cooked to 180°F not 165°F. Please correct me if I’m wrong. However this recipe does look very good, I do plan on making it, but perhaps with a few adjustments on sitting time and roasting time.

The USDA changed their recommendations for the proper temperature to cook chicken years ago. They’re now saying cook all poultry to 165, even the thighs. I have found that the breasts are fine if I take them out at 165, but the thighs, especially near the bone, are happier at 170. I don’t know who gave you the recommendation to only leave a whole raw chicken out for 20 minutes, but it is completely insufficient. Leave it out for 1 to 2 hours at a room temp of 74°F or less. When you roast it, any bacteria that has managed to multiply in that time will be killed by the heat.

If you use a chicken right out of the fridge, and have not let it rest at room temp, then you will likely need more than 15 minutes per pound to cook it.

Hi Elise, I wanted to ask about using your perfect sour cream pie crust recipe in place of the pie dough recipe for the Chicken Pot Pie recipe on your website. Can I make a double crust and bake it at 400 F for 10 minutes like reviewers have said and still have it come out perfectly? If so, how long, with any dough weights, and can I bake it just from dough with the filling in and the top crust? Thanks.

My 3 year old is leaning over my shoulder right now saying in her little voice that this looks delicious mommy. I agree little one! Apricot glaze is new to me, but your chicken looks absolutely juicy and tender and ready to be gobbled down. And because my 3 year old is super motivating when it comes down to dinner ~ I’m ready to try roasting my very first chicken ever as I’ve never done so! I would love your cheddar cauliflower soup with this. Oh yum.